


Normal

by Paige242



Category: Superman & Lois (TV 2021)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 04:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30083556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paige242/pseuds/Paige242
Summary: Being Kryptonian isn’t just about strength and speed.Jon reflects on the moments that made that clear.
Relationships: Sarah Cushing/Jordan Kent
Comments: 10
Kudos: 86





	Normal

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little idea I had. Jon POV, a bit of Sarah/Jordan on the side. And I tried to bring Kara in for a scene (I hope it’s not too obvious that I’ve only seen a handful of Supergirl episodes...I tried!)

**_ Sick  _ **

Some sort of flu was making the rounds at Smallville High. It was so bad that winter that even the Smallville Gazette had reported on it— and it felt like half the school was off sick. 

Jonathan and Jordan felt fine, though. And they were currently sitting together in a quiet corner of the cafeteria, having lunch and lamenting the fact that they were stuck at school. 

“If it’s that bad they should just shut down for a week,” Jordan sighed, looking around the half-empty room. “I can’t believe Mr. Khan is still pushing ahead with the history midterm, even though everyone is away,” he paused for a moment, letting out a sigh, “maybe I’ll get lucky and start barfing my guts out tonight.” 

Jon laughed at his description of ‘lucky’ before letting a more serious expression cross his face. He’d been thinking about something all week and now seemed like as good a time as any to bring it up with his brother. 

“I don’t think you will,” he began, eliciting a curious look from Jordan, “in fact, I don’t think it’s possible for us to get sick.” 

He watched as his brother’s dark eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Wait...what?” 

Jon lowered his voice— there didn’t seem to be anyone around, but it was always a good idea to be cautious. Just in case. Their dad had been drilling that into them for months. 

“Think about it, Jordan. Can you remember the last time you were sick?” 

There was a pause as the other teen through about it and Jon waited patiently for the realization to hit. 

“No,” Jordan said slowly, “I faked it a few times in middle school because I didn’t want to go, but I can’t actually remember the last time I was sick, come to think of it.” 

“Me neither,” Jon agreed, “and mom never talks about us getting sick as kids. Most parents would have at least one story about the time their kids hurled in the car, or spent the night in the emergency room with a high fever. But ours don’t.” 

He watched as Jordan shut his eyes for a second and he knew that his twin was reaching the same conclusions he had. 

“So, do you think it’s because we’re...” 

Jordan trailed off, not wanting to say the word at school, and Jon nodded. 

“When I think about— really think about it— I can’t even imagine what being sick actually feels like,” he added with a quiet sigh, “I mean, I’ve seen people on TV act sick. I’ve heard people describe symptoms. But I don’t think I’ve ever felt any. Have you?” 

Jordan looked up and met his eyes and he instantly knew the answers. 

“No,” Jordan said, his eyes growing wide, “I haven’t either.” 

xxxxxx

_** Growth  ** _

Sure, he could feel that the shirt was tight but he hadn’t even looked in the mirror before bounding down the stairs. 

Mom had been shouting that it was time to go for the last ten minutes and Jon didn’t want to be at the receiving end of her wrath. 

They were supposed to be heading into the city, to a fancy reception where Aunt Lucy was getting some sort of reward. 

But, apparently, even getting dressed in his Sunday best wasn’t enough to appease his mother right now. 

When she caught sight of him entering the kitchen she gave a loud sigh and threw her hands up in frustration. 

“Of course, you too,” she muttered, shaking her head. 

Jordan was slumped on the couch, arms crossed and looking annoyed. 

“Clark!” His mother shouted, looking up towards the stairs, “bring down two extra dress shirts.” She turned back towards her boys, “you can’t go to the reception looking like this.” 

“Looking like what?” Jon asked, still confused by her frazzled state. Leave it to mom to make a big deal out of nothing. 

“Looking like you’re about to burst out of your clothes!” She exclaimed as if it was obvious. “Honestly, do either of you look in the mirror when you get dressed?” 

She rolled her eyes when they both gave a unified “no.” 

But, as Jon looked down at his shirt he could see what she was talking about. It had been several months since he’d worn this button up and, when he glanced at it, he could see that the buttons were now straining against his chest. He moved his arm a bit, hoping to readjust it, and suddenly noticed that it felt almost painfully tight around his bicep too.

The shirt that had fit him just fine in the fall was suddenly way too small. 

He looked over at his brother, noticing that the other teen seemed to be facing the same problem. In fact, one of Jordan’s buttons had already managed to pop off and was hanging by a thread from the seam of the shirt. 

Dad entered a moment later, looking perfectly preened and holding two dark coloured shirts in his hands. Mom grabbed them instantly, and threw one at each of her sons. 

“Change, now,” she commanded, shooting a look at her husband as the twins wisely started to follow her instruction. 

“Look at them,” she said, shaking her head at Clark, “two months ago their shirts fit and now they can hardly move. If I didn’t know better I’d say they’d both been spending their spare time bench pressing.” 

They hadn’t, of course. And even football season was over now. Neither of them had been doing much of anything aside from playing video games and binge watching TV.

Their father laughed and Jon looked over as he pulled the new shirt over his arms, noticing that it was a much better fit. 

“It’s perfectly normal,” the man said, clearly unconcerned about the entire situation, “the same thing happened to me back when I was their age. My mom called it kryptonian puberty,” he laughed at the memory, “don’t worry, it’ll slow down soon.” 

Beside him, Jordan snorted. “Yeah perfectly normal,” he repeated sarcastically, “Sarah asked if I’ve been taking steroids.” 

As his brother finished doing up his shirt, Jon could see that it was a pretty good fit. It really wouldn’t be long until he was the same size as dad...

“I’m sure she’s not too upset about it,” Jon teased, earning himself a patented Jordan scowl.

“No fighting,” mom barked, picking up the car keys, “let’s go.” 

xxxxxxxx

_** Smart ** _

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and Jon was trying to get through his homework as quickly as possible. 

He had turned to calculus now and was currently solving problem fifteen of twenty. The end was so near that he could practically feel it and he moved his pencil across the page as quickly as he could. 

Beside him, Jordan was finishing up a chemistry assignment. With luck, they’d both be done with plenty of time to practice some football in the yard before dinner. 

The kitchen door suddenly swung open and Jon looked up, surprised to see his dad walk in with another figure in tow. 

Maybe the homework wasn’t going to be finished as quickly as he hoped after all...

“Aunt Kara,” Jordan said, looking up from his own work, “when did you get here?” 

Jon smiled too. He liked his unofficial aunt (technically cousin) and it was often nice to have another person around who knew the big secret. He got tired of being so guarded, sometimes. 

“It’s great to see you,” he added, placing down his pencil. 

The woman smiled. “Great to see you boys too,” she replied warmly. As Clark went to fetch some glasses of water, she took a seat across from them at the kitchen table, “I need your dad’s help with a couple of missions so I came by to brief him before heading back to National City.” 

Jordan perked up at this. “Cool,” he said with an uncharacteristic degree of enthusiasm, “can I help?”

He’d been getting stronger. And faster. Jon knew his brother was pretty keen to join the family business but they both knew that was still a long way off. 

But he didn’t blame him for trying.

Kara chuckled before shaking her head. “Slow down, tough guy,” she teased, shooting Jordan a look, “your job right now is to focus on finishing high school. Then we’ll talk.” 

The boy looked a bit put out, but it wasn’t anything he hadn’t heard before. 

“Speaking of,” Kara began again, pushing up her glasses as she leaned across the table to get a better look at their work, “how’s the homework coming along?”

The two shrugged in unison. 

“Easy,” Jordan said. 

“Tedious,” Jon added. 

Neither of them had ever struggled with anything academic and they were tied at the top of their classes with near-perfect scores. He knew exactly how to solve each of these equations. But their teachers always wanted to see the process and that meant slowly writing down every step, even if he could do it in his head. 

“Ah, calculus,” his aunt said with a wistful smile on her face, “on Krypton, they teach this in kindergarten, you know. I bet it’s not giving you any trouble.” 

She gave him a knowing look and Jon felt a slight wave of unease wash over him. 

She was right, of course. It did just seem to click for him. But he hadn’t really spent much time thinking about why that might be. 

Was his alien-hybrid brain simply wired for stuff like this? That would actually make a lot of sense...

“No, it’s pretty simple,” Jon agreed, glancing down at his work. “I have a perfect score so far this year.” 

“Making the House of El proud,” Kara noted, exchanging a look with Clark as he joined them at the table. His dad beamed. 

“And chemistry, fun!” His aunt continued with another bout of genuine enthusiasm as she looked towards Jordan’s pile. “You boys come from a long line of scientists, you know. It’s in your blood. My father and your grandfather were both famous back home. I think there has been a famous scientist in the House of El stretching back seven generations, at least.” 

She looked at her cousin as if awaiting confirmation but their dad simply shrugged, “you’d know better than me,” he admitted truthfully. It was true. Kara had grown up on the planet while he had left as an infant.There were definitely certain things what she knew more about. 

Jon would never forget the evening she had regaled them with detailed descriptions of Krypton’s famous landmarks. He often found it hard to conceive of the long-gone planet as real. That was the first night that he had really been able to picture it. 

“Just remember guys,” Kara added helpfully as she placed her glass down on the table, “even though this all comes easily for you, try not to upstage your human classmates too regularly. As I found out the hard way, it’s a surefire way to arouse suspicion.” 

“We’re expert liars now, don’t worry,” Jordan quipped with a sly grin. 

Jon shifted uncomfortably in his seat, “yeah,” he added softly, “don’t worry.” 

He wasn’t really sure who he was trying to convince. 

xxxxxx

**_ Sun  _ **

Smallville only had one local pool and, on sunny days like this, it was always packed. 

Thankfully, Jon, Jordan and Sarah had been wise enough to go early and were enjoying a relaxing break from their swim in a comfortable patch of grass off to the side. 

It was a nice feeling, laying sprawled out on the soft towel as the water slowly evaporated off his skin. 

He heard a couple of girls giggle softly as they walked by and he casually met their eyes with a cheeky smile. At the risk of sounding arrogant, he was used to the attention and he couldn’t say that he hated it. 

He knew where he stood.

“The dark haired one is mine but you can have the blonde,” Sarah, remarked playfully from her spot next to Jordan. “He’s in a dry spell. Maybe you can help him out.” 

The girls looked mortified and quickly scampered off. 

“Worst wingman ever,” Jon said with a mock scowl. 

Sarah shrugged mischievously and Jordan chuckled. 

“She has a point, bro. You’ve been single for a year now, it’s time to get out there. Stop pining. Have some summer fun.” 

Jon snorted. He never thought he’d see the day when Jordan was in a happy relationship while he was the odd one out. But here they were, and his brother was doling out unsolicited advice. 

The truth was, he wasn’t really pining over Eliza anymore. He did miss her at times, but that wasn’t the real issue. 

It had been a crazy couple of years and sitting on the big family secret had been taking a toll. He had pushed Eliza away because he knew he couldn’t share the truth. And he worried that any future relationship was going to be the same. 

He’d had flirtations and a few fun nights, but he hadn’t seemed able to go for anything more. 

He was simply too guarded. He didn’t know how to let someone in without actually letting them in, if that made sense. How could he feel free and open when he couldn’t tell them such a huge part of his life? 

In the wake of a crazy car accident, Sarah had figured it out. Jordan was lucky, he didn’t have to feel this way anymore. 

He didn’t understand. 

“I’m changing the topic,” Jon declared bluntly, doing his best to smile. It felt a little forced, “how about the weather...” he joked. 

Jordan snorted, “smooth,” he remarked sarcastically before taking a brief pause. “It’s actually pretty great out, though,” he remarked, stretching his arms out a bit to let the sun reach the other sides, “I’ve always loved this feeling. You know, the tingle on days like this. It’s like a natural high.” 

Jon knew exactly what he was talking about but he was a bit surprised to see Sarah sit up, a perplexed look on her face as she glanced between them.

“What tingle?” She asked, clearly confused.

Jon matched her expression. How could she not know? 

“You know,” he tried, furrowing his brow, “the way your skin feels on a sunny day. Like it’s tingling, in a good way. Almost like a warm buzz that spreads over your skin.” 

“Exactly,” Jordan agreed, nodding his head at the description. “And sometimes the feeling lingers, even after the sun sets. I often find it hard to sleep those nights, I’m just too wired.” 

Jon knew that feeling too. It was a common summer problem, but one that he didn’t hate. Restless nights kind of sucked, but they didn’t really make him feel tired for some reason. 

He always woke up with a lot of energy. 

“Guys—“ Sarah began slowly, her expression not lifting in the least, “that’s not normal.” 

“Huh?” Jordan propped himself up on his arms, surprised. 

“What?” Jon added unhelpfully, “of course it is. Dad said—“ 

He trailed off, realizing how ridiculous his statement was before he even said it. 

Sarah looked serious. 

“Yeah, of course your dad said it’s normal,” she said in a hushed tone, her eyebrow raised, “it’s probably normal for him. And you,” Jon felt his stomach do a little flop and he shifted uncomfortably in his spot. 

All of a sudden, he felt very exposed. 

“It’s not normal for the other seven billion people on this planet, though.” 

He could see his brother frown. 

“I just assumed...” 

Jon met Jordan’s troubled gaze. 

The more time that passed the more clear it seemed to be. 

Despite the secrets and the revelations. The lies and the discoveries. 

The greatest one yet was still left unsaid.

They had never been normal. 


End file.
